It began in Ipanema. Rio de Janeiro in 50 Songs

Sorry, the music from Rio de Janeiro has been travelling the world since decades. For Non-Brazilians, everything seemed to begin in Ipanema: a guitar chord, a soft melody, a girl walking by. Enough to transform a city into a myth. However, samba rose from the hills, far from the beach. And baile funk emerged from the favelas rather than Copacabana.

Berlin DJ and music producer Daniel Haaksman looks behind the curtain of postcard clichés and explores both the history and the present of Rio, creating a sensual map of carioca music. Spanning more than a century, the songs featured in „It Began In Ipanema“ reveal how a city tells its story through sound. From the restrained precision of bossa nova to the intensity of baile funk, from beachside mythologies to hillside realities, each chapter opens another window onto the city. What takes shape resembles less a linear history than a constellation of perspectives. A sonic urban architecture formed through longing, rhythm, and resistance.

Written with the curiosity of a digger and the sensitivity of a cultural mediator, Daniel Haaksman´s It Began in Ipanema moves between essay, travelogue, and musical analysis. It´s for readers willing to follow and explore. And above all, to listen and to listen again.

With a preface by Jamz Supernova